British Airways offering Avios as a refund option ?
 

As reported in HFP:
"British Airways has added the option to take Avios rather than a cash refund or voucher if your flight is cancelled."
However, the HFP article says it is "assuming" the rates that are offered, which rather undermines the authoritativeness of the story.
Anyone here who can confirm, deny, or add substance to this?

https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/0...-cash-refunds/

Can confirm that this is an now an option if flight is cancelled .

BA confirmed this to us but only off the record. We would not have published it otherwise.

Isn't the whole idea of being told something 'off the record' that you don't name your source?

Any chance we can convert Future Travel Vouchers into Avios, then?

Wondering what rate they are offering?

It's a pretty good rate: https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/0...-cash-refunds/

Around 0.8p

I've done some digging around, and yes it's definitely on offer. It's for commercial, i.e. cash revenue bookings only. Obviously it wouldn't make sense for redemptions, and I'm not sure about Part Pay but I suspect they cannot have this offer. The flight needs to be cancelled by BA, as an alternative to a cash refund, it's not open to those in BWC who would otherwise get a FTV if their flight is still showing as operating.

BA being BA, or rather BA being BAEC, had to make this quite complicated and there is a calculator that Contact Centre staff have to use, entering in the cash amount and waiting for what the computer says.

For lower value fares, say below £200, you are getting 108 Avios per Pound Sterling (GBP) of the fare you paid for the now cancelled service. For higher value transactions, say £1,000 it's 123 Avios per GBP. On an example £130 booking, you get 14,100 Avios. On £1,300 it would be 160,700 Avios. Avios take about a week to credit to your account (apparently). From that the way to work out the amount of Avios you would get is to go to the usual Buy Avios page, look down for the GBP value below your fare, work out the pence per Avios (typically 0.5 to 0.6p per Avios) and double it (so you're in the 1 to 1.2p area). Then multiply your fare in pence by that 1 to 1.2 factor.
https://www.britishairways.com/trave...rchaseType=Buy

Is this worth doing? Yes if you get a decent return on your Avios. I aim for 2p value per Avios, so that £130 / 14k Avios is worth around £260 to me. If you use Part Pay with Avios then don't do this, you're throwing money away, since Part Pay, outside any special offers, is usually around 0.7p per Avios, though there is usually an entry level amount of 1p per Avios. If you reduce your Avios on redemptions by increasing the cash amount then so long as you do the maths on the relevant implied exchange rate then yes, you too would benefit from this offer. It's also worth doing if you often find yourself topping up the amount of Avios you need for bookings since it's twice the straight cash amount, however there are frequently deals around where there are bonus Avios, or Amex led deals, or deals via Iberia (of various levels of complexity).

As with all of these remedies, whether cash, FTV, rebooking, make sure you make the right decision since you're only allowed one shot at this, you can't change your mind. And in that respect cash is the best option for those unsure, since obviously that has the flexibility that other forms of exchange won't have. Obviously you also need to be a BAEC member to take advantage of this.

Wow, I have two evouchers at the moment, and at that rate my vouchers would be worth just shy of a million Avios.

I have already accepted vouchers. Am I allowed to change these to Avios now ?

This is very interesting. I'm not sure why they never added +10 or +15% onto vouchers for cancelled flights. I'd have taken vouchers over cash with some of my cancelled bookings.

How does this work out to offset cash bookings with avios? Does it make it more attractive than vouchers?
- C-W-S, thanks

No, I don't believe this is possible, not least because it's only for cancelled flights where passengers have a legal right to a full refund - this deal keeps the cashflow internal to IAG. Those with FTV include those who were not entitled to a refund.

Is there any indication as to whether it might be possible to take a refund partly in cash and partly in Avios? I have an upcoming flight that I believe is likely to be cancelled - the total refund would be over £4,000 and although the avios offer is tempting I wouldn't want to spend that amount on "buying" avios. However if I could take £1 - 2,000 in Avios and the rest in cash I would be tempted.

No, I don't believe this is possible. But if it is 2 people travelling, what you could do is split the reservation into two separate reservations, this is fairly easy to do, then cash refund on one, Avios credit on the other. That said, the highest value for money in this space is for expensive bookings, they would be get 125 Avios plus per pound.

Thank you CWS - what a good idea - I hadn't thought of splitting the booking! There are two people travelling so your suggestion would work perfectly.